9. Bloggers in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda can now enter the World Bank Group’s 2017 #Blog4Dev contest

This year’s contest focuses on youth and agriculture and contestants are to submit a blog post on “To farm or not to farm: What opportunities exist for youth to prosper in agriculture and agro-business?” The #Blog4Dev contest is an idea sharing platform for youths in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda and the application deadline is January 15, 2017.

7. The Wecode meetup is happening in Abuja this Saturday, January 14

Wecode is a community of tech enthusiasts, software developers and entrepreneurs based in Abuja and this month’s meetup features three topics around building frameworks, integrating Moneywave and building real-time apps.

6. Register to participate in the 2017 edition of the Connect Nigeria E-Business fair

The E-Business fair will feature a conference and an exhibition connecting micro, small and medium scale enterprises and it’s happening in Lagos on February 18, 2017. With the theme, “E-Business and the Growth of Your Enterprise”, participants will learn how to take use technology and the internet to propel their business to success.

Attendance is free for participants and information on registration, sponsorship placements and booking of exhibition booths is here.

5. GameMania, a new casino mobile app that lets players use real money, has launched in Kenya

The mobile app is a virtual casino where users can place their bets and win using Kenyan shillings. It is licensed by the Kenyan Betting Control and Licensing Board and integrated with MPesa. The app is available for download on the

The app currently has three mini games and is available for download here.

4. Six SMEs have been announced as finalists for the African Finance & Investment Forum (AFIF) Entrepreneurship Award 2017

Aybar Engineering (Ethiopia), R n G Company Limited (Kenya), EuroFresh Exotics (Kenya), First Atlantic Semiconductors & Microelectronics (Nigeria), Kimolo Super rice (Tanzania) and Eco Act (Tanzania) are the six selected finalists. They will receive free accreditation to join the AFIF 2017 full programme while the winner will receive a cash prize and media promotion for one year. The award ceremony will take place in Nairobi on February 13-16.

3. Nigerian classifieds website, Efritin, is reportedly shutting down

According to this report by Techpoint, an anonymous source confirmed that the company officially shut down its operations yesterday. Their website is still active and the last activity on twitter was yesterday. It’s a developing story so we’ll see how this plays out.

2. Nigerian entrepreneurs will have a chance to compete for N10 million seed investment on the new Amazon Project TV show

The Amazon Project TV show will run for 13 weeks and the 10 selected participants will have the chance to win N10 million in seed capital in addition to business incubation support. Nigerian entrepreneurs who can apply innovative and smart economics to complex business problems are invited to apply.

You can apply to be a part of the show here and read more about it here.

1. Uber will be sharing anonymized data with urban planners to help them make informed transportation and traffic decisions

It’s part of a new data dashboard called Uber Movement and anonymized GPS data from Uber trips will be shared with urban planners to help them identify traffic hotspots and resolve them. iAfrikan reports that the service was first rolled out in Washington, DC, Manila and Sydney but it will be rolled out to everyone in the coming weeks.